1878] FRESH FACES. 19 



and its Hunt was a happy little family party, differing, it 

 is true, in rank and position, but united by one strong 

 common bond of local interests. At one time the whole 

 of Derbyshire and Staffordshire society seemed to be knit 

 together by ties of relationship, and a strange resident 

 appearing at the covert side was very much in the same 

 position as " Snob" in Leicestershire, in Aiken's inimitable 

 sketches. 



By degrees all this was changed. No doubt every- 

 thing is much smarter than it was in Hoar Cross days, and 

 the hunt servants are better mounted and better turned 

 out. When Fred Cottrell was second whipper-in it was 

 some time before he was allowed a red coat ; in fact, it 

 was rather a favourite joke in the country that a subscrip- 

 tion should be got up to buy him one ! One thing is quite 

 certain, and that is that there is a great deal more money 

 spent and wanted, which is perhaps unavoidable under 

 modern conditions. A iDropos of subscriptions, this 

 year's amounted to £3482 95., and the compensations to 

 £166 7s. 6d. 



The new-comers were Mr. Kempson, to Co ton, and Mr. 

 Hodgson, afterwards at Small wood, to Tixall, a charming 

 old house near Ingestre. Mr. Kempson was a nice light 

 weight, who afterwards distinguished himself quite as 

 much at polo as in the hunting-field. He never went to 

 school, being delicate, but to a tutor's, where his father 

 allowed him a pony, so that he had never missed a season 

 from the time he was a small boy till he went abroad to 

 shoot big game in the Rocky Mountains in 1898. His 

 wife, who was Miss Firman, and who had given up hunt- 

 ing for some time, went with him, and became as fasci- 

 nated with the wild, unconventional life as he did. So 

 much so, in fact, that, after staying at home one season, 

 they let Densy, the house he built near Sudbury, started 

 off again, and at this time are still abroad. Mr. Kemp- 

 son is one of the most beautiful horsemen imaginable, 

 and has the art of seeming perfectly at home on the 

 wildest young one. As a breeder of hunters he has been 



